Apollo and Starbuck from A to Z
by roofietoof
Summary: Alphabetized scenes from the lives of our favorite pair of frakked up pilots. No rhyme or reason to it whatsoever. Random and unrelated.


**A/N: I tried to do just sentences to go with the letters, but I'm very verbose, so they turned into scenes.**

**A/N: I give all due respect to Mystic83, who is the queen of this writing style. And to Tracyj23 for giving me the idea to do it in an alphabet series, 'cause I'm way to lazy to do fifty scenes. :) **

**Article**

Lee walked to his quarters on the Pegasus after what had arguably been one of the worst days since he took command. He rolled his neck as he punched in the keycode and the doors slid open. He didn't bother turning on the entry lights and he sighed heavily, yanking off his jacket and throwing it on the sofa.

"So, I once read this article in _Caprican Medical Quarterly_……."

Lee gasped in shock and had to take a step back as he clutched his chest.

Kara Thrace was sitting in his office chair with her feet propped up on the desk, a lit cigar in her mouth.

"Frak! Kara, you scared the hell out of me!" He shouted. "How the hell did you get in here?"

She flicked her ashes in his long-forgotten cup of coffee. "I used the door."

He looked to the hatch and then back at her. "It's code-locked."

"The code is Zak's birthday." She winked at him knowingly. "You could at least _try_ to be a little less predictable, Lee."

He rubbed his eyes and sighed again. "Fine, you've got me totally figured out. You wanna tell me why you're here?"

"I was _trying_ to before I was interrupted by your little freak-out." She informed him through a clenched jaw. "As I was saying, I once read this article in _Caprican Medical Quarterly_."

He sat on the corner of his desk and pushed her feet off. "What were you doing reading _Caprican Medical Quarterly_?"

She shrugged. "It was in the emergency room lounge while I was waiting to be patched up after a barfight." She paused when she heard him snort and leaned forward in her chair. "The article was about twins."

His eyes lit up and he finally smiled. "Yeah?"

She nodded. "It was really interesting. It said that twins are connected; almost supernaturally. And oftentimes, the twins somehow know, somehow _feel_ what the other one is feeling. Even if they are miles apart."

"That _is_ interesting." He plucked the cigar from her fingers and ground it out on his clipboard. "But were you ever going to get around to telling me why you came here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She grinned at him. "I had this feeling that you might be having a bad day."

**Boy**

"It's a boy." Cottle informed them, cigarette dangling from his mouth as he pulled the shrieking child from between Kara's legs.

"Oh gods." Kara groaned, collapsing against the pillows, sweat-drenched and exhausted. "That's just what I need—another Adama boy to turn my world upside down."

But when she looked up at Lee, her smile let him know she wouldn't have it any other way.

**Choice**

Even the fire coming from his eyes wasn't enough to ward off the chill that had seeped into her heart.

"It was a choice that I made, Lee." She pleaded with him, choking back a sob before she gathered her strength again. "And it was _my _choice to make."

"Yours?" He repeated in angry disbelief, advancing to where she stood by the door. "_Your _choice?"

She lowered her head. "I know you don't understand, I know you might never understand—."

She was cut off when he pushed her back into the hard, metal wall and pinned her there with his body.

His breath was blistering as he hissed in her ear. "You have taken everything we are, everything we were, and everything we might have ever been……..and shattered it into a million pieces."

**Deduction**

She threw the stapler against the wall behind him and he ducked so that it narrowly missed his head.

She stared at him with fuming eyes. "If you'd stop _screaming_ at me for two seconds and use those powers of deduction that everyone always praises you for, you'd realize that I was trying to let you know that I love you too."

"Then why couldn't you have just _said _so?" He looked like he wanted to strangle her with his bare hands. "You couldn't have made this even the slightest bit easier for me?"

She bit her lip and leaned down to pick up the ring that he had furiously thrown on the floor. Slipping it on her finger, she grinned. "When have I ever wanted to make anything easier for you?"

**End**

He laid in the bunk that she had just vacated and watched her get dressed. "So that's all it was? Just a good lay?"

"You know that's _not_ all it was, Lee." She said, facing the other direction and refusing to look at him. "But this can't happen. We'd just hurt each other in the end."

"The end." He whispered sadly, laying his head back on the pillow. "Try the beginning and the middle too, Kara."

**Fraternization**

Seven crewmembers sat around the triad table one afternoon and tried to shake off their boredom as they played cards.

"They're serving some kinda pie—or what passes for pie—in the mess." Hotdog told the others.

The news wasn't even enough to raise their heads.

"Ensign Matthews in Communications just got promoted to Lieutenant." Duck informed them.

There were a few nods and a few "hmmms" as they took in the information.

"Well," Lee started, throwing his money toward the center of the table. "I was just on Colonial One, and it seems that the President's desire to repopulate the human race overrules my father's desire to enforce the fraternization regs."

He paused when everyone looked up at him with wide, questioning eyes. "So………" He continued. "They've been suspended."

Cally leaned forward in her chair. "The frat regs?"

"Have been suspended?" Duck finished for her, gaping in disbelief. "As in….NO more restrictions?"

Cally chuckled and looked around at the others. "That's gonna make things interesting. There's gonna be a lot of frakking in storage closets now."

"There was a lot of frakking in storage closets _before_." Kara corrected. "Rescinding the regs isn't going to change anything about an average crewmember's daily existence."

"I guess you're right." Helo agreed. "It's still gonna be weird though, knowing that if they wanted to, anybody—regardless of rank—could be in a relationship with anybody else."

"Yeah...relationships." Kara conceded meaningfully, locking eyes with Lee as he sat across from her. "I guess it will open up certain doors that were always closed before."

Lee nodded, never taking his eyes off of hers. "But then again, it's ridiculous to think that there will be a mass increase of people locking themselves in empty bunkrooms just because some rules have been relaxed."

"Ridiculous." Kara repeated.

"Because that would be childish." Lee added.

"And inappropriate."

"And it would set a bad example."

Kara grinned sexily. "It definitely would."

Lee smirked back. "Definitely."

Kara dropped her cards on the table and shot up from her chair like a rocket. "You know what, guys? I just remembered that I have this…….._thing_…….that I have to do."

Lee also stood up from his chair so fast that it was knocked to the floor. "I think I might have a……._thing_…….to do as well."

Helo chuckled knowingly and adjusted his cards as the two of them practically skipped toward the exit. "How long should we stay out of the bunkroom?" He shouted after them.

"An hour should do it." Lee shouted back as Kara's fingers gripped his collar and dragged him into the hallway. "Or maybe two."

**Grave**

She stepped off the Raptor and he caught sight of her from where he stood waiting for her on the flight deck.

Their eyes only met for a split second before he moved forward to welcome her home. But in that split second, they both knew that all the pain they'd felt over the last year was enough penance for the sins they'd committed against each other.

The slate was clean now.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his neck as he ran a hand through her hair.

Then he promised her in an almost inaudible whisper, "The next time I ever let us be apart, it'll be because I'm in my grave."

The short burst of breath against his neck let him know that she had heard him.

**Hell**

"There's a special kind of hell for people like us, Kara." He whispered into the darkness.

She laid her head on his shoulder as his arm tightened around her. "But at least there we can finally be together."

**Insight**

Stingray sat down at a table in the mess and leaned in to whisper a secret to Racetrack, Kat and Hotdog.

"I think I've figured something out." He stated, tapping his finger on the table.

"Oh yeah?" Racetrack chuckled, buttering a piece of bread. "Care to share?"

Stingray nodded. "I've been watching Apollo, and I've been watching Starbuck. And I think……..I think they're _in love_."

Three sets of eyes shot up from their food trays.

Stingray continued. "……..with _each other_."

Kat burst out laughing and dropped her head to the table.

Racetrack winked. "You _just_ figured that out?" She reached over and playfully slapped his cheek. "Awwww, poor dumb Stingray."

The light dawned for the nugget. "So everybody already knows?"

Hotdog shrugged. "Everybody with eyes and ears."

Stingray stared at the others. "Do you think _they_ know?"

"Maybe not." Racetrack mumbled with a mouthful of food. "I never thought I'd say this, but they're a lot dumber than you are."

**Judge**

"Maybe I decided to be with Sam because he's never made me defend everything that I do."

Lee sat at his desk in silence, looking in her direction but not meeting her accusatory glare.

"So keep on sitting there, playing judge and jury if you want to." She seethed as she moved backwards toward the door. "But I'm gonna play the executioner……….you and I are _done_, Lee."

He rose from his chair. "Kara—."

She shook her head and heard the door automatically open behind her. "Have a nice life, Commander."

**Kind**

"Thanks for getting someone to cover my maintenance shift last night, Starbuck." Racetrack said as she took a tray from the line in the mess hall. "My back was really killing me."

"Yeah, no problem." Kara replied, only grabbing a coffee mug.

"Who'd you get to do it?"

"Some random nugget." She yawned.

"Well, thanks again." Racetrack said, going to sit at a table.

Kara nodded absently and poured coffee into the mug until she felt a finger tap against her shoulder. She turned to face an amused CAG wearing a cheeky grin.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Whadya want?"

His grin got wider. "I seem to recall you coming into the bunkroom at 02:45 this morning, exhausted and covered in grease."

She shrugged. "Racetrack had a problem with her Raptor two days ago, and the hard landing wrenched her back. I didn't want to leave a malfunctioning ship in the hands of a wet-behind-the-ears rookie, but Racetrack also looked like she was really hurting, so I excused her from her shift and did it for her."

Lee just shook his head in amusement. "You know, Thrace, you really can be incredibly kind when you think no one is noticing."

**List**

"What the hell is this?" Kara asked when she noticed her name on a sheet of paper and picked it up.

Lee looked up from his files in sudden embarrassment and quickly reached for it. "Give that back!"

She maneuvered away from him and held it behind her back. "Tell me what it is first."

He moved back and scrubbed his hand over his face, exhaling loudly. "It was my turn for the mandatory session with the psychiatrist and she seemed to think that I was a little stressed out."

Kara snorted at the huge understatement.

"So as a cathartic exercise, she had me make two lists: a list of things I was grateful for, and a list of things that annoy me."

Kara looked down and saw that her name rested at the top of a list that included _hot showers _and_ nights of uninterrupted sleep_. "This is the list of what you're grateful for?"

He looked away. "Yeah."

She smiled. "_I'm _on this list."

"You're also on the _other_ list." He snatched the paper out of her hands. "TWICE."

**Missed**

She sat on the sickbay bed like a scared little girl, not the vibrant warrior shouting across the skies that he had once known.

He closed the curtain behind him and came to stand beside the bed, reaching out to touch her, but pulling back before he made contact.

"They brainwashed me." She began weakly, her eyes screwed shut. "They forced me into a new life, and I didn't remember anything from my old one. But you wanna know something funny?"

She finally opened her eyes, so he nodded.

A tear fell down her cheek. "Even though I didn't remember you, I knew that I missed you."

**Nothing**

Kara stood in sickbay, the disinfectant smell attacking her nose and the steady beeping of the monitors assailling her ears.

She moved to the side of the bed and leaned down over his immobile body, barely feeling the warmth radiating from it. The warmth she used to crave like a drug.

"Lee?" She whispered close to his ear. "I don't know if you can hear me……."

She pulled back to see if he was responding, but leaned in again when he didn't.

"They sent me in here." She laughed ruefully. "The Old Man said that you needed me, but Helo told me that what you really needed was someone to come in here and scream at you to get your ass out of bed. I guess they figure that if anybody could bully someone out of a two week coma, it'd be me."

She took his hand in hers and placed them both on his chest. "But I'm not gonna bully you, or scream at you." She choked out a sob. "I'm just gonna tell you something that you need to know.

She reached up to stroke his hair. "A long time ago, I told you that there was nothing between us. Well, that was only half true." She bit her lip and squeezed his hand tighter. "What I really meant was that there was _nothing_ in the universe that describes how much I love you."

His eyes fluttered open.

**Order**

"I'll make it an order if I have to." He shouted at her across the bunkroom.

"That's not something you can order me to do, Apollo!" She shouted back, picking his clothes up off her bunk and throwing them at him.

"If it's vital to the safety and security of the fleet...I can order you to do almost anything."

She tapped her foot against the floor. "And how exactly is what you're asking me to do vital to the safety and security of the fleet?"

"Because I'm gonna go crazy! You are gonna drive me absolutely crazy, Kara." He pointed at her. "There is gonna be a total lunatic residing in the fleet and he's gonna be in charge of the fighter planes! That'd be an incredibly dangerous situation we'd find ourselves in and you would be the cause of it!"

"And so you think this is the answer?" She shook her head and looked to the floor in shame. "Lee, I'm gonna drive you crazy no matter what I do."

"That's true." He walked to her and lifted her chin. "But we don't have much of a say in the matter, this is bigger than the both of us. When are you gonna realize that this is just the way it's gonna be?"

She groaned and dropped her head to his chest, muffling her reply. "Fine. I'll marry you." She pulled back and rolled her eyes at him. "But only to ensure the safety and security of the fleet."

**Punishment**

"You think you're scared now?" Lee scoffed, looking at the two nuggets as they trembled in fear before him.

"Well, get this," He grinned menacingly. "I'm not gonna be the one to decide what your punishment should be." He patted one of the nuggets on the shoulder. "I'm gonna let Starbuck do it for me."

**Quirk**

"There's always been this unendearing quirk about me, Helo." Kara told him as they sat outside her tent one night when he came down to the surface of New Caprica to visit her.

"Yeah?" He responded affably, nudging her shoulder. "What's that?"

She looked up to the stars above. "Whenever I'm sleeping with someone, or attempting to sleep with someone………..I'm always thinking about someone else."

Helo gulped.

She looked into the tent where Sam was rattling around. "I wonder if my husband has figured that out yet."

**Request**

"Sweetheart?" Lee said to his daughter as she sat at the kitchen table. "I need you to pick up your toys from the yard."

The blond-haired, hazel-eyed girl looked up at him. "Awww, do I have to?" She whined.

"Yes." He replied bluntly, pointing to the back door. He then turned to her mother standing at the stove. "And Kara? I need you to stop telling the neighbors that if they park their car in front of our house, you'll have your father-in-law zap them with a '_laser death ray from outer space'_."

She dropped the spoon into the pot and faced him with a scowl. "Awww, do I have to?"

**Sister**

"Actually, we do have something in common, Agathon." Lee laughed as he poured them both a drink. "We both love Starbuck."

Helo raised the glass to his lips. "Except I love her like a sister."

Lee grimaced as the liquor burned down his throat. "I love her like a sister too." He rasped.

Helo gulped down his drink and setthe glassback on the table. "Yeah, but my way is a _lot_ less incestuous."

**Tale**

William Adama tucked the little boy into his arms and brushed the blond hair from his forehead.

"Alright," He sighed, noticing how the child's blue eyes kept sliding shut. "If you promise to try to sleep, I'll tell you a story."

"Mm'kay, Grampa." Was the boy's sleepy reply.

"A long time ago, the twins of Zeus reigned throughout the stars. Both felt more at home in the heavens than they did on land. Apollo ruled over the sun, while Artemis was sovereign over the moon. Apollo was steadfast and even-tempered, while Artemis was passionate and tempestuous. That which Apollo could not do, he left to Artemis. That which Artemis faltered with, Apollo accomplished."

"In fact, they were different in every way………except in how _alike_ they were." The Admiral looked down and chuckled. "Does that sound like anybody you know, Zak?"

The only answer he got was a soft snore.

**Uncle**

Lee Adama walked into CIC furiously looking for his wife. He spotted her at the tactical table with Helo and marched over there with a single-minded determination.

"I have a bone to pick with you!" He hissed at her in lieu of a greeting.

She jumped at the harshness of his tone and stepped back slightly. "What'd I do?"

"Well," He threw his papers down on the table. "It seems that our _five year old _daughter just told her babysitter to '_get the frakking stick out of her ass and leave her the hell alone_'!"

Kara bit back a laugh, but then sobered when she noted his irritation. "Okay…….so why are you yelling at _me_?"

He pointed at her accusingly. "Maybe because she heard that phrase from you?"

She shook her head. "No, she most certainly did NOT."

"Where else could she have heard it, Kara?" He shouted.

A throat cleared behind him and he felt a finger tap his shoulder.

When he turned around, Karl Agathon had a sheepish, apologetic expression on his face.

"Um……..sorry about that, sir." Helo whispered, scratching his nose. "I'll try to watch my mouth next time."

**Vain**

His hand rested on her naked hip and he held her close so that she was tangled up in the bed sheets with him.

She traced her finger down from his forehead, over his nose, and to his lips. "I've been trying to fight this thing between us since the moment I met you."

She laid her head down on his chest and sighed contentedly. "There's now something strangely comforting in knowing that it was all in vain."

**Warning**

Lee sat on the examining table as Cottle changed the dressing on his bullet wound.

"Between the two of them, it's an easy choice." Lee stated absently, remembering both the kiss that he'd gotten from Dee before and the fight that he'd had with Kara before that. "Dee is warm…………while Kara is like fire that scorches everything around her."

Cottle stopped what he was doing and looked up at him with raised eyebrows.

Lee dropped his chin in embarrassment when he realized that he had shared too much information with the doctor. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I just told you that."

Cottle snorted and shook his head at the CAG's obliviousness. "Maybe to give me fair warning that I'll need to stock up on burn ointment?"

**X-Ray**

Lee stared at the X-ray that Cottle showed him and wondered how the strongest heart he'd ever known was now having trouble beating.

"The damage is too severe, I'm afraid." Cottle sighed between puffs of smoke. "The muscle has become irreparably weakened. You'll have to ground her."

Lee shook his head and looked back to her bed. "It might kill her if I take her out of the air."

"Well, it'll _definitely_ kill her if you keep her there." Cottle shot back. "The G-forces would be too much……the heart would just give out."

Lee sunk into the nearby chair. "What am I gonna tell her?"

"Tell her that she'll live a long and healthy life……….just with a few restrictions."

Cottle walked away and Lee reluctantly made his way to the patient's section of sickbay, to where everyone was congregated around her bed.

"You're gonna have a new scar." Kara told their daughter as she examined a cut on the young girl's arm.

"That's my fault." Tyrol admitted. "She was playing pyramid with Michael, things got a little out of hand and he pushed her down."

"Yeah, but he was only defending himself." Helo interjected, chuckling all the while. "Besides, she gets mad if they go easy on her just because she's a girl."

"Wonder where she gets that from?" The Admiral spoke up, grinning at the little girl wrapped around her mother in the bed.

Lee coughed and everyone turned to look at him, so he gestured for them to clear out. "I need to talk to the beautiful bane of my existence for a second."

They all left and he came forward to kiss her softly.

"Am I dying?" She smiled fearfully when he pulled back.

He shook his head and then lowered it, refusing to meet her eyes. "No, you're gonna be fine. But Cottle says the damage is going to keep you from……….you won't be able to fly anymore, Kara."

Her brow furrowed, taking in the information. "Will I still be able to be an officer in the Colonial Fleet?"

"Of course." He replied, surprised at the question.

"Will I still be able to be a daughter to your father, a comfort to my friends, a wife to you, and a mother to our children?"

He nodded.

She grabbed his collar and kissed him long and hard. When they separated, they were both breathless and she touched his cheek. "So why do you think that won't be enough for me?"

**Yammer**

"Alright, quit your yammering!" Kara yelled playfully as she walked into the next room to find hernine month old son gripping the edges of his crib as he leaned up against it. He gave her agummy grin when he saw that she now stood before him.

"We talked about this; we had a very lengthy discussion." She put her hands on her hips and looked down at him disapprovingly. "And you and I decided that you wouldn't wake me up in the middle of the night for no reason anymore. We agreed that you would only do that if you were sick, hungry or needing to be changed." She picked him up out of the crib and bounced him in her arms. "Now, I'm looking at you……..and I don't think that's what is going on."

He babbled incoherently and pointed gleefully at the gray wall.

"Yes, I know." She agreed with him. "The totally bare wall is very fascinating, but I've seen it before, so I don't really think it was necessary for you to get me out of bed just to show it to me."

He giggled at her and gave her a slobbery kiss on her chin. She snorted in amusement. "Okay, you win. You wanna sleep with me and Daddy tonight?"

He babbled happily again and pointed to the door that led to his parent's bedroom. She sighed exhaustedly and kissed the crown of his head as she carried him out of the room. "Gods, you are gonna be the death of me, kid... I love you so much."

**Zodiac**

"Daddy, it wasn't my fault!" The little girl defended, looking up at him. "Mrs. Lindsley was teaching us about the zodiac, but she said that they were symbols of a dead culture and a dead religion that nobody believed in anymore. All I did was tell her that she was wrong, but she told me to sit down and be quiet, so I—."

"So you _what_?" Lee cut her off. "What did you do, Caroline Laura Adama? Tell me why I got a call at work and had to drop everything to drive all the way to your school in the middle of the day?"

The girl looked to the floor. "I threw my book at her." She admitted.

"She's got a serious attitude problem, Mr. Adama." The teacher spoke up. "She's disobedient and disrespectful."

"Trust me, Mrs. Lindsley." Lee groaned and covered his eyes. "When you finally meet my wife, you'll think Carrie is tame by comparison."

THE END


End file.
